Sol Cat | Welcome to Cowabunga | New Music Review

Welcome to Cowabunga is a short EP (only three tracks deep), so we’re really not getting a full lay of the land here, just a quick tour de psychedelia. Still, the set runs long enough to reveal some telling references—start to finish, Cowabunga could’ve been My Morning Jacket’s doing if (lead singer)’d been smokin’ a pack o’ Marb Reds on four hours sleep every day the past ten-odd years; a little bit more of a stretch, but I’d be comfy enough tossing in a comparison to Dead Confederate, too, just for kicks (albeit a jollier, trendier incarnation of the sludge quartet.)

What’s too bad about this record—but a good advert for the band, I suppose—is that she just sort of... ends. When “Keep Your Heat” cut out on me the first time around, I found myself suddenly left sitting in the dark, wondering how the Nashville six-piece would’ve filled the space remaining for a viable full-length. Regardless, Welcome to Cowabunga is a tight little release that should be enough to warrant a spin of their earlier, self-titled long player for those still diggin’ in the southern psychedelic landscape nowadays.